THE NATURALIST.

Otago Witness, Volume 11, Issue 2280, 11 November 1897, Page 58

THE NATURALIST.

Birds Play Tricks.

Birds deprived of the nse of limbs do not alway3 "go to the wall." The writer has seen a fitch with a wounded wing sustaining life by robbiDg spiders' webs, strung across the brambles and low bushes, of the flies entangled therein. This enterprising songster did cot sbow a lean body either, and at the end of three weeks was able to fly away to its old haunts.

A lame crow lived for the greater part a* a summer by eating the bait from a cluster of rat traps, tbe dtxberity it employed in avoiding the spring and teeth revealirg it to be cunmpg and observant". Harger compelled it to attack an imprisoned rodent on one occasion, the straggles of the latter eventually dragging the bird into tbe snare, the twain being found by a stableman later in the afternoon.

For barefaced impudence a pied wagtail comes up first. This bird bad suffered an injury to its pinions, and ran about a kitchen garden for some time before it was discovered. E^en then it evaded capture, and its nimble legs served it in good stead, not even the cat havir-g a chance in the race. Tba master of the bouse had a pet owl which was fed regulaily on milk sppp, tbe bowl being carried into an outhouse, where the blit king bird fed at leisure.

One day the wagtail was observed to run into the barn and, with gaping mouth and wirgs fiercely flappirg, attack tbe owl so persistently that it hobbled off, leaving the milk and bread to the mercy of the ravenous little assailant. This happened so frequently that the owl was in danger of pining, and its meals were served in a more eecure quarter.

A wood pigeon with broken wicg robbed the barn door fowls of their grain, and grew so bold that he actually scared away the hens by strut ting and poffing out bis breast, pecking at them when Ihey ventured too near him, and cooirg discordantly loud to further frighten them.

Beetles abe Valuable.— The most remarkable gold beetles in the world are found in Central America. Tbe head and wing cases are brilliantly polished with a lustre as of geld itself. To sight and touch they have all the seemiDg of that metal. Oddly enough, another species from the same region has the appearance of being wrought in solid silver, freshly burnished. These gold and silver beetles have a market value. They are worth from £5 to £10 each.

White Ammals Cannot Smell. — It's curious, but quite true. Very few aninlals but pigs and sheep are white all over, and it has been found that pure white creatures are utterly deficient in the sense of smell. A farmer in Lincolnshire was the first to perceive it. He bad a number of pigs running loose, and found the white ones used often to die in some unexplainalle way. At last he discovered that they were poisoned with a sort of root which grew on his land. Experiments showed that only the white pigs ever did touch it ; the others never. Similarly in Africa white rhiHOceroses poison themselves sometimes by eating a euphorbia which no other animal will touch ; and

Italian woolgrowers do not like pare which sheep, because they are always eating grass and herbs which don't agree with them.